Ding, Dong, DOMA’s Dead?

Obama administration drops support for Defense of Marriage Act, calls it unconstitutional.

The Obama administration announced today that it will no longer support the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court and will allow challenges to the law to proceed through the court system unimpeded.

“But while both the wisdom and the legality of Section 3 of DOMA will continue to be the subject of both extensive litigation and public debate, this Administration will no longer assert its constitutionality in court,” said Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement today. Holder sent a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives informing them of the president's decision, and the new DoJ stance, in which he went into much more detail in his explanation.

You know what that means, right?

Just in case you don't, let me spell it out for you.

Section 3 of DOMA is the part that defines marriage at the federal level as a union between one woman and one man. And President Obama told the Department of Justice to stop defending it as constitutional, because as far as he's concerned, it's not. That doesn’t mean DOMA is quite done—this could drag on a long time in the courts—but the law has lost its primary defender.

Says House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, “Since its inception, the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act has long been viewed as a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Today, the President made clear that he agrees—and I commend him for taking this bold step forward to ensure the federal government is no longer in the business of defending an indefensible statute.”

Bold step indeed, as until now, the president has been very open about the fact that he's torn, on a personal level, on the issue of same-sex marriage.

This is a monumental step forward in LGBT and marriage equality, particularly perhaps in the two cases currently before the 2nd Circuit Courtmentioned in the statement, Pedersen v. OPM and Windsor v. United States. Where it goes from here is anyone's guess, but we'll be watching.